Last week’s weather has been great… and for once I don’t feel like ranting critically. So, let’s try something positive. Lately, I’m back into fitness, a lifelong passion of mine, ever since fourteen years old. Now, I’m not saying I’ve been working out for seventeen years straight without interruption. No, there have been periods – like the stretch from last September to the end of January – where life happened and I couldn’t exercise regularly. Last year was just plain busy. As a result, up until a few months ago, my physique looked like Cookie Monster’s.
Back in February I first picked up a weight again, in a long, long time. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that I couldn’t handle the same load, often having to lessen the weight by a quarter. But this wasn’t a worry. Throughout the past few years, there have been many times when circumstances forced me to stop training. Be it the demands of academia, work, or illness. Yet, contrary to what one might expect, this turned out to be a positive, not a negative.
Here’s why. After a while, my training routine becomes… well, a routine. Starting fresh is the perfect moment to experiment, I find. Make some changes, see what works and what doesn’t. This time, I’ve concluded the bench press just doesn’t do it for me. It doesn’t achieve what I’d want it to achieve.
So, I’ve returned to an old favourite of mine – the humble dumbbell flyes. In case you’re new to fitness: similar to the bench press, you lie on a bench, but instead of a single bar, two weights are grasped, and the arms are spread wide before being drawn together, as though attempting to hug a grizzly bear.
Again, this used to be one of my favourites. So why did I quit this exercise? Well, my rationale at the time was that the bench press, with its added weight and stability, was the superior alternative to dumbbell flyes. Gradually I recognized that was a flawed way of thinking. First, you can’t compare the weight used between exercises, because of a thing called leverage. Second, I didn’t feel what I should’ve doing the bench press. Sure, the weight increased over many weeks, but the muscle growth lagged behind, as did the pump – not the determining factor for an exercise, but definitely a clue.
And switching back to dumbbell flyes after many years, this time, I’m not doing them like I did at fourteen years old. Now, I’m putting every ounce of focus into each repetition. After even the first set, the pump felt incredible. Results soon followed. Some would consider abandoning the bench press as blasphemous. Personally, I don’t care. I care for what works.
By the way, I’m not making any big claims here. I’m not Arnold Schwarzenegger and I’d advice you to do your own research. One of the reasons I’m talking about this today, is just for the simple fact I love trying things and finding out what works for me. That held true even when I was fourteen, putting plenty of effort into my training, without seeing much progress as a reward. Even so, I didn’t care. I knew my patience would eventually be rewarded.
Having said all of that, l want to encourage you to be yourself. Try out new things and do what works for you. Don’t try to live your life in a foolish quest to be just like someone else. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger for example. How foolish to try and copy him, as many have tried. No, he recognized his own unique strengths and capitalized on them to the fullest. We should do the same. Food for thought.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet